There’s no shortage of rumors pertaining to the next iPhone nowadays. The latest tidbit comes from iLoungue editor Jeremy Horwitz who apparently learned that the new iPhone – and you can bet Apple will call it this way – is longer and thinner than the current-generation iPhone 4/4S.

It’s also said to feature an all-metallic backside and a taller display four inches in diagonal, thanks to the use of Gorilla Glass 2 which can be manufactured thinner with identical strength to the earlier iPhones’ Gorilla Glass.

Also in the cards: A new dock connector, possibly with fewer pins…

The iLounge story claims that the new iPhone will measure 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm. Compared to the existing iPhone 4/4S, it’d be 10mm taller, nearly 2mm thinner and have the same width.

As for the metallic backside:

According to our source, Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic.

The metallic backside is rendered at the article top.

Here’s a quote on the display:

As the new iPhone won’t widen, this appears to confirm that Apple will change the new iPhone’s aspect ratio for the first time since the original iPhone was introduced in 2007, adding additional pixels to the top and bottom of the screen.

It was about the time, cynics might add.

A change of this sort took place between the fourth and fifth generations of the iPod nano, but didn’t impact any third-party software. This obviously will.

I disagree.

Yes, a taller display would prove problematic because apps are optimized for the iPhone’s 3:2 display so they would need re-writing to take full advantage of the bigger canvas.

Another solution: drop the physical home button and replace it with a virtual counterpart occupying extra space at the screen bottom, as shown in this Liquidmetal iPhone 5 concept.

As for the new dock connector, it’s going to be smaller and rounder, the author claims:

Apple will also introduce its new Dock Connector on the new iPhone. The new port will be a little larger than the bottom speaker or microphone hole on the iPhone 4/4S. It’s believed to have fewer pins than the prior 30-pin Dock Connector, perhaps only 16, and the shape of the hole is apparently closer to a pill shape than the prior rounded rectangle. It will be used on all upcoming devices, including an update to the iPod touch that’s expected this year, and will almost certainly feature a similarly updated screen and CPU.

And here’s an artist’s rendition depicting the smaller dock connector.

It should be noted that most of this stuff is basically a rehash of a 9to5Mac story from more than a year ago.

Also noted that while Horwitz has proved to be a reliable source of Apple-related leaks in the past, he’s had some missteps as well.